We had an awesome time at Alki Art Fair - the weekend was successful beyond our wildest expectations. We have sent in all of the metal print orders and you should be hearing from us in the next day or two with a tracking number.

Thanks again for everyone who stopped by to chat and/or view our work.

I will once again be a participating artist with five pieces on display at the 2018 Kenmore Art Show at Bastyr University. This year I will be accepting an award at the artists' meet and greet (open to all) on Wednesday, June 27th from 5:30 - 8 PM.

artists for restoring the columbia river gorge | fundraising conclusion

We have successfully concluded our fundraising campaign to support Friends of the Columbia Gorge in their restoration efforts following the devastating #EagleCreekFire. Thanks to your support, we have raised $3902 for the restoration, protection, and maintenance of the Columbia River Gorge.

Thank you so much to everyone who contributed your work and talent, purchased a print, picked up a few raffle tickets, or spread the word.

Art prints may still be available directly from the participating artists - please refer to the artist bios at the bottom of the fundraising page [link] to access their online portfolios.

We are in for a treat on January 31, 2018 when we will be graced by the rare celestial occurrence of a simultaneous super moon, blue moon, and total lunar eclipse. This event is one to photograph because we’re talking about a…

SUPER: A moon that is closer than usual to the earth is called a super moon. Super moons appear larger and brighter than normal. This boost in brightness is especially helpful for photographing the Blood Moon, which is much darker than other phases of the lunar eclipse.

BLUE: A full moon that occurs twice in a calendar month is called a blue moon. There is nothing photographically interesting about blue moons except for their increased “rare celestial occurrence” cred.

BLOOD: At peak eclipse, the moon falls completely behind the Earth’s shadow and becomes an amazing shade of orange and red.

MOON: Always a fascinating subject to photograph.

Photographing a lunar eclipse can be an easy and fun project for all levels of photographers, from beginner to pro. In this tutorial we’ll cover the basics on how to plan, shoot, and post process a lunar eclipse in a way that is accessible for all skill levels.

For advanced photographers, feel free to scroll down to Advanced Lunar Eclipse Composition Techniques to learn how to plan a lunar eclipse shot with a landscape or landmark element in the foreground using PhotoPills and a bit of trigonometry. I've also illustrated how to use this GOOGLE DOCS SPREADSHEET CALCULATION TOOL created by me for use in tandem with PhotoPills to plan shots involving the sun or moon in complicated mountainous terrain.

Let’s talk about equipment.

Nice gear always helps, but you can still get a good image on an entry level camera with a long lens and manual controls. Because the moon is dark at peak eclipse and relatively small in size, the most critical attributes of your camera setup are the focal length (magnification) and stability. Fancy lenses with large apertures and camera bodies that perform well at high ISOs are helpful, but secondary in importance.

Focal length:

It may be pretty obvious that the size of the moon depends on the focal length of the lens, however it’s difficult to know just how much of the frame will be covered by the moon without stepping outdoors on a full moon and snapping a picture. For those of us who live under permanent cloud cover (hello fellow Pacific Northwesterners), here is a rendering of how the moon will fill the frame at different full-frame 35mm equivalent focal lengths*:

Moon sizes at various focal lengths (35mm full-frame equivalent)

*How to find your equivalent focal length if not using a full-frame camera:

Step 1: Google "[your camera’s make/model] crop factor.”

Step 2: Plug them into this equation:

Equivalent 35mm Focal Length = Focal Length [mm] * Crop Factor

Now before you go out and buy a 800mm lens and a 1.6x teleconverter for $17,000, remember that a well-shot image can be cropped down a bit without sacrificing too much image quality.

Additionally, you can increase the resolution of your image by using a method called image stacking, which is described in a very easy to understand manner in Tony Northrup’s tutorial. Image stacking is an amazing method of sussing out extra resolution and detail on static (non-moving) subjects. If you're interested in seeing how this works, check out The Photon Collective's excellent educational video.

Stability:

A nice, heavy tripod and a remote shutter release (or 2-second timer) are critical to minimize blur caused by camera shake. If a tripod is not available, try getting creative, such as by resting the camera on a sweatshirt or beanbag on the roof of your car. You will need to either engage a 2+ second timer on your camera or to use a remote shutter release as the movement caused by pressing the shutter button will result in a blurry image when shooting the moon when it is darkest at peak eclipse.

Yeah but what are my camera settings?

See below for a summary of my recommended camera settings. If you're not sure how to adjust your settings accordingly, Google is there to help. If you're not familiar with your camera's functions, I strongly suggest learning how to adjust these settings a day or two in advance.

Basic Settings:

RAW. Shoot in RAW if you have access to post processing software such as Photoshop, Lightroom, or Apple's iPhoto. This will allow you to make far more serious corrections and adjustments to your image without pushing the limitations of the much more compressed JPEG file format.

MANUAL FOCUS. Use manual focus via Live View if at all possible. If your camera does not support Live View manual focus, your camera should be ok when the moon is at partial phase but it will likely be unable to focus on the Blood Moon (the moon at peak eclipse) due to the lack of light. Try using autofocus to lock your focus on a street lamp or something else that is bright and very far away, then swing the camera up to the blood moon and take your shot. Note that if you have to employ this method, your AF mode should be set to AF-S.

MANUAL SHUTTER SPEED, ISO, AND APERTURE. Yes, I know this is beyond some of your comfort zones. To help make life a little easier, start with these settings*:

Full Moon: 12.64 EV (or 1/200s, f/11, ISO 400)

Crescent Moon: 11.64 EV (or 1/100s, f/11, ISO 400)

Blood Moon (peak eclipse): 1.33 EV (or 1/2s, f/6.3, ISO 3200)

If your lens is unable to achieve these apertures, match the listed EV (exposure values) with different settings by using this handy calculation tool. Note that if you are concerned about camera shake, you can also increase the shutter speed by modifying the aperture. Try throwing some numbers in there and see what happens.

*Keep in mind that the image on the back of your camera can appear to be misleadingly bright when viewed in total darkness. I have way too many underexposed Milky Way shots because of this phenomenon.

2-SECOND TIMER OR SHUTTER RELEASE CABLE. As described above, you will need to either engage a 2+ second timer on your camera or to use a remote shutter release. Without employing the use of a timer or remote shutter release, the movement caused by pressing the shutter button will result in a blurry image when shooting the moon at peak eclipse.

OK, let's plan this thing:

When the heck is this eclipse you keep talking about anyway? Use Time and Date to read up on the eclipse and the important times of each event relative to your region. Note that you may have to punch in your location to get the times to show up correctly.

Keep and eye on the weather. The best way to gauge the viewing conditions is to head over to Clear Sky Chart, where you can see the forecasted cloud cover, visibility (transparency), and darkness (moon phase related). An iOS app is also available.

What kind of shot do you have in mind? Do you want a shot of the blood moon by itself? Do you want to take photos of the entire event and stitch all of the phases together in a single photograph? Do you want to include some sort of landscape element or landmark in your photo? If looking to do something a little more advanced, consider moving on to Advanced Lunar Eclipse Composition Techniques further down in the tutorial.

Consider taking multiple shots for image stacking. As described earlier in the tutorial, you can increase the resolution of your image by using a method called image stacking, which is described in a very easy to understand manner in Tony Northrup’s tutorial. Image stacking is an amazing method of sussing out extra resolution and detail on static (non-moving) subjects. If you're interested in seeing how this works, check out The Photon Collective's excellent educational video.

Advanced Lunar Eclipse Composition Techniques

Now THIS is the fun part. If feeling adventurous, you could try including a foreground element such as a landscape, mountain peak, bridge, or building. While it will take some additional legwork, this is a manageable task for those willing to put in the time.

To follow this part of the tutorial you will need:

PhotoPills is an incredibly powerful iOS and Android app for planning shoots in advance when you need to know where the sun, moon, or Milky Way core will be at any given point of time. My image of the 2015 blood moon rising over Mount Shuksan was planned using this indispensable app. In this section I'll go over my method to getting this shot. All of these steps can be easily replicated for this year's Lunar Eclipse.

Figure 1: PhotoPills Planner for the 2015 Super Harvest Blood Moon

Figure 2: Mount Shuksan from Picture Lake. The red outline represents the peak used as the foreground during the blood moon shown in Figure 4.

Step 1: Open the planner and adjust the time and date to find the general direction and elevation of the moon during phases of the lunar eclipse [Figure 1]. From here we can see that the 2015 Blood Moon (the narrow cyan line) occurred ESE from 2.1 to 14.7 degrees in elevation. FYI the January 31, 2018 Super Blood Blue Moon will occur due East 14.3 to 26.7 degrees relative to the horizon in the Seattle region.

Step 2: Brainstorm landmarks or landscape elements that would be complementary in the frame. With the info obtained in Step 1, I thought of hiking trails or roads with photogenic mountain peaks looming to the east at about 6-10 degrees from the horizon. One idea was to see if the 2015 Blood Moon would rise over Mount Shuksan from a point along the Artist Point or Picture Lake trails [Figure 2]. It is best to find multiple location possibilities within a large radius from your base of operations to minimize weather impact, but we will continue with only the Mount Shuksan example for simplicity.

Step 3: Find the elevation of Mount Shuksan and then use Google Earth to check the elevation of points along the trail and distance from Mount Shuksan's peak from using Google Maps.

Step 4: Did you know that Excel is a mechanical engineer's best friend? Well now you do. Click here to use a spreadsheet I've created to plug in the distances, elevations, and eclipse details obtained from PhotoPills, Google Maps, and Time and Date [9.27.2018] [1.31.2018]. If the elevations check out, try to refine the approximate trail location and elevation by iteratively checking both PhotoPills and Google Maps for moon direction and elevation.

Step 5: Leading up to the day of the shoot, check Clear Dark Sky to verify the conditions are still bueno.

Step 6: While on-site, use the AR Viewer [Figure 3] to fine-tune your composition. It's best to do this well in advance while there is a sun or moon visible in that general direction. Photo Pills is only as accurate as your phone's GPS, compass, and accelerometer, but it does have a calibration tool that allows you to adjust the sun/moon tracker based on the current location of the sun or moon.

Step 7: Once you have everything set up and have finalized your composition, you just have to wait for the magic to happen. That said, BE PREPARED TO MOVE. Any inaccuracy in Photo Pills' calibration may require you to make final adjustments with your feet. If everything worked out as planned, awesome job! Feel free to press that shutter release [Figure 4].

Post Processing Tips

Coming soon.

Good luck, and please drop me a line if you found this tutorial to be useful! Also, while you're here, don't forget to check out my portfolio.

I was so gutted to hear of the devastating fire at Eagle Creek raging through the Columbia Gorge. It's a hard pill to swallow to see an uncontrolled fire spreading across one of our most cherished areas of the Pacific Northwest. While it's too late to prevent the damage, at least we can do our part to help rebuild such a wonderful and unique landscape.

I have teamed up with Hargis Engineers to organize a fundraising campaign to benefit Friends of the Columbia Gorge, a non-profit organization that is dedicated to protecting and maintaining the Columbia River Gorge through restoration projects, land trusts, stewardship, and policy development. Artists from the Hargis family (myself included) have come together to offer their artwork as part of this campaign.

Proceeds generated from this website (and from my normal store here at Washington State Photography) will be donated to Friends of the Columbia Gorge. In addition, Hargis Engineers will double your impact by matching the first $5,000 raised.

Braving the traffic, heat, forest fires, and camera body mechanical failures to experience and capture the 2017 Great American Solar Eclipse in Oregon State.

2017's total solar eclipse was anticipated to be a cluster for Oregon. With the small city of Madras (population: 6,729) named the nation's best vantage point for the eclipse due to its high probability of clear skies, Oregon expected to see over a million visitors swarming to the area over a 3-day period. With the Oregon Emergency Services preparing for this event for over two years and the governor activating the national guard in advance, this was sure to be an interesting one.

It seemed like a perfect time to plan an Oregon getaway. I'd rent a cargo van for the week, throw in my camera gear, an air mattress, a Coleman stove, and a bunch of backpacking MRE meals. What could possibly go wrong, amirite?

August 12, 2017 [t-minus 9 days to the solar eclipse]

After creating a finely crafted plan involving field of view calculators, Google Maps, spreadsheets, and a bit of trigonometry, my plan to shoot the eclipse from the base of Mount Jefferson went up in smoke as I discovered that I was planning to shoot in the middle of a forest fire. I decided to go down anyway, play it by ear, and create a new plan via some on-location scouting.

August 17, 2017 [t-minus 4 days to the eclipse]

Seattle -> Mt Saint Helens

No crazy eclipse traffic...yet.

First stop: Leaving directly from work, I drove directly to Mount Saint Helens for a night of wide-angle astrophotography.

Before the first shot of my photography vacation I had a tripod malfunction (stupid Arca-Swiss plate variation) and the camera and lens came crashing to the ground . Observe the aftermath:

Well hell. Vacation over. Humbled by defeat, I packed up, drove to a rest stop along I-5, and crashed for the night.

August 18, 2017 [t-minus 3 days to the eclipse]

Portland -> Columbia River Gorge -> Mount Hood

Vacation salvaged! In the morning I found a few camera rental shops in Portland, one of which had a D810 available for the weekend. $150 poorer and a whole lot happier, It was time to head into the Columbia River Gorge to capture a few waterfalls and then off to Mount Hood to capture the sunset and Milky Way.

Watching the sun set over Horsetail Falls, Columbia River Gorge, Oregon

Hanging out with a huge dragonfly near the lower falls of Oneonta Gorge.

Sunset at Mount Hood / Poop Lake [early edit].

Fun story about this lake above: after wading into the water up to my ankles to compose this shot near I discovered a sign with a gigantic NO SWIMMING warning stating that this was a waste water outlet (not a lake, as I had originally thought). Awesome. I finished up my shoot and scrubbed the skin off of my ankles and tripod legs with a bunch of sani-wipes.

After packing up at around 1:00am I took 26 down to Warm Springs Reservation and crashed for the night in the first pull-off I could find.

Photos not yet processed from this day: images from Oneonta Gorge and the Milky Way over Mount Hood at Poop Lake.

August 19, 2017 [t-minus 2 days to the eclipse]

Upon waking up I realized that I spent the night adjacent to this huge drop off into a dried riverbed. Since I didn't inadvertently back up into the ravine, I thought this was kind of cool and considered it a win.

Driving another 30 minutes south south along route 26 brought me into the path of totality along the Deschutes River. I began to scout locations to shoot the eclipse by using the app Photo Pills to estimate where the sun will be at the time of totality:

I saw a few possibles, but nothing that really wowed me. The landscape at Deschutes River is beautiful but it really lends itself to a more telephoto composition (70mm and up). At totality, the sun would be so high that you would have to shoot 35mm or wider to capture both the landscape and sun.

Next stop: Proxy Falls, an iconic Oregon waterfall that was on my bucket list. Or so I thought, anyway; Proxy Falls was closed due to yet another forest fire. Moving on...

Next stop: Smith Rock State Park! Due to the proximity, I decided to drive through this area and hoo boy am I glad I did:

Sunset at Smith Rock State Park

Scouting for a composition to shoot the eclipse also yielded better results:

Cattails in the foreground?

Xmas tree ornament?

Solar eclipse in Namibia?

Winner: Namibia.

Having found a composition I decided to stick it out around Smith Rock State Park for fear of getting stuck somewhere due to the forest fires or eclipse induced apocalyptic traffic conditions.

Traffic was still pretty normal. I encountered no unusual congestion until I drove through Madras on the way to Proxy Falls Smith Rock where some huge tent cities were beginning to populate. Madras was busy, but the traffic was no worse than my every day commute into downtown Seattle for work.

August 20, 2017 [t-minus 1 day to the eclipse]

Smith Rock State Park

Still at Smith Rock. After doing an eclipse test shoot at 10:20 I took a hike up Misery Ridge and discovered Monkey Face, an incredible rock formation teaming with rock climbers. I decided to stay put from 3-8PM to shoot at optimal lighting conditions and to catch the sunset. It's days like this you can be content with coming away with only a single image. This is doubly so after having the opportunity to meet so many great people while waiting for the sun to do it's thing.

About the image: This one includes multiple exposures at different times of day to capture optimal lighting conditions and as much action as possible on the rock face. Click the image to view full-size.

An alternative version of this scene from Michelle Lam, one of the many people I met waiting for the sun to set that day.

August 21, 2017: Eclipse Day!

Smith Rock State Park

What an amazing (and long) day.

While joining two new friends just before dusk to shoot the sunrise, we met an awesome group of Seattleites who also braved the frigid desert cold and ungodly early hour in hopes of capturing that early morning light. While the shoot went bust after the sky failed to put on a show, all was not lost as our groups merged and an awesome morning was had by all.

I swear my next camera is going to have a tilty screen. I'm getting too old for this. (Mark Tulewicz)

"Tracking the sun at 600mm sure is ruff."

I once experienced a partial solar eclipse as a kid and have never forgot it. Even though the moon only covered about 30% of the sun, I got such a thrill by looking at the sun through a sheet of aluminum foil (yeah, safety standards are a little higher these days). Experiencing a total eclipse was nothing like that.

At 90-99% totality, the quality of the light was just weird. The shadows were still strong and harsh, yet the light was dim and colors were noticeably de-saturated - perhaps because our eyes' rods, the photoreceptors responsible for seeing in the dark, are not as sensitive to color. I was not able to capture this observed lack of color in-camera.

As the moon slipped in front of the sun and the diamond ring effect became visible, there was a very immediate and very stark loss of light and temperature. What had previously looked like a slightly pale version of the sun became this shimmering halo in the form of a diamond ring. The diamond ring effect lasted for 5-10 seconds and then the world around us was lost in pure totality; an experience I struggle to accurately describe.

We did not observe any abnormal animal behavior but the humans around me were definitely losing their shit.

And with that, our group's images of the event:

Killer shot by Mark Tulewicz, who shot this at 600mm. Follow Mark on Twitter @GhostTapMark.

This image is a composite of 27 images - 13 focus stacked images of the foreground, 13 frames of the sun, and an additional image of the sky.

...and here comes the traffic, which for the first 6 hours was just as interesting/hellish as predicted. Thankfully I was too dehydrated to require a pit stop on the 140-mile 8.5 hour non-stop drive to Portland. At least I had time take a few shots while at a complete standstill:

August 22, 2017 - Post Eclipse Hangover / My Second Eclipse in as Many Days

Back in Portland and showered for the first time since Thursday! Contrary to reports, it turned out that totality was visible in Portland. I give you the Total Solar Eclipse Voodoo Donut:

Aw man I could have saved like 3 days worth of travel by simply enduring the 45 minute wait at Voodoo.